The Demon's Little Wolf

CHAPTER 20

Analise's POV

Exhausted from the meeting, I walked back to my room. My entire body was stiff from sitting for hours in the room, listening to new problems and making new strategies. I twisted the door knob and entered the room. As I closed the door behind me, I froze.

Something was wrong.

I caught the a strange scent lingering in the air but I could not decipher exactly whose it was. A light breeze went across my face, pushing my hair away from my face and I turned my attention to the open window. I never left my windows open at this hour of night. I clearly remember closing it earlier. I advanced towards the window, the scent getting fainter with every step.

Peaking out of the window, I strained my eyes, looking at the surroundings but found nothing suspicious. I was about to close the window when I caught sight of the two guards on the ground below my window. I let out a relieved sigh as I picked up their breaths with my hearing.

I closed the window and moved to the middle of my room, alert. I focused all my senses to my surrounding as I searched for anyone's presence. Finally, I caught another smell- a pungent one- and I scrunched my nose. The scent led me to peak under my bed where there was a black box.

Confused, I got it out from underneath the bed. The pungent smell was stronger mixed a hint of a coppery odour rising with it. I immediately knew it was blood. I felt nervous as I inspected the box. There was nothing on the sides and bottom.

With firm hands, I removed the lid from the box. I forced down the bile rising almost immediately at the sight in front of me. I threw the lid to the side, my face scrunched in disgust. The sides of the box were painted red with blood and a heart was in the middle. The smell was enough to tell me that the heart had been sitting in this box for days now.

I was about to dismiss it as a simple prank from Rayan to get back at me for what happened last week at the fight when I saw a small paper sticking out from under the heart. I felt a wave of nausea wash over me as I pulled the paper out using my finger tips. I placed the box on the floor as I opened the folded paper. It was a letter.

Welcome back to your family Princess. After so many years, you finally returned. All those years ago, you managed to escape when I attacked your palace but not this time. This time, I will win. Nobody will be able to save you. Not your family. Not your allies. Nobody. Better be careful because I have eyes everywhere and you would not even know it when I am near you. Get ready to die Princess.

As I read the last part, a shiver passed through me as realisation dawned on me. This was from the vampires and I was their target. Not the werewolf kingdom.

"This cannot be happening right now." I said to myself before I read the letter once again, my hands trembling.

'Lizzie calm down' Crescent said, worried.

"Crescent, that night, everything that happened was because they wanted me. They died because of me." Tears brimmed my eyes as my mind went back to that dark and horror filled night. "The attack. They wanted me and many innocents died because of that."

'Lizzie you could not do anything. It was not your fault.'

"How?" My mind clouded with different thoughts. "That night I was the cause of the attack. It is all repeating Crescent. We are currently at war with the vampires because they want me. People will die again Crescent, thousands of innocents. And it will all be because of me."

'Analise, it never was and will never be' She said sternly.

"It is Crescent. The attack. The war. The deaths. All of it." Tears fell from my eyes as I fell to my knees. "I don't want to live through the same horrors again Crescent. I don't want people to die because of me. The guilt from that night still eats me and I don't want more of it." I sobbed. "I cannot."